Unfortunately respect is a trait severely lacking in a war, which is why these weapons exist with this power in the first place! I'd rather not have the need to use it at all, but that's not happening. Back home or here. And I have no intention of failing in either place!

[ If he sounds a touch defensive in the end there ... it's because he is. He does not LIKE the implication that failure is some inevitable thing for him. ]

What the hell do you mean by absorb it? Are you made out of this stuff? Is that how you could sense it in the Duel?